Ball in general, life on the road… on this blog, either you do or you don't.

What I'd Do/What They'll Do, No. 2

Ladies and gentlemen, once again it’s What I’d Do/What They’ll Do, where I first-guess decisions by management. First of all, it makes for fun discussion, but second it hopefully makes me immune to charges of second-guessing if I ask about something later.

There’s plenty to discuss, but I specifically want to talk about the playoff rotation.

First of all, I think it’s pretty universally assumed that the three pitchers, in some order, will be Carpenter, Suppan and Weaver. I expect that they will use them in that order. However, as one commenter already posted here earlier today, I think that may not be the best way to go.

Instead, assuming that those are the three guys, I’d go with Carpenter in Game 1, Weaver in Game 2 on the road and Suppan back at home in Game 3. Couple of reasons. One, Weaver and Suppan’s respective home/road splits this year. Also, if you’re going with one of those two guys on short rest, I think you’d be better off with Weaver.

I’ll be blogging throughout the Div. Series as well as covering it, so please do check back regularly for news, thoughts, observations and the occasional dose of college football or travel stories.

-M.

(got iTunes on Party Shuffle; the song right now is "Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns" by Mother Love Bone, from the Singles soundtrack)

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4 Comments

Sounds good to me. Makes sense. Is Reyes your choice as a fourth starter? I wish him well, but can’t imagine Jason Marquis ever pitching for the Cards again. I think, say, Thompson and Narveson had better be ready to make a partial bullpen start for at least one of the playoff games.

What about carrying three lefties in the bullpen? Makes sense to me. Although that means some decisons to make concerning the righty relievers.

My only concern with your suggestion is that means Suppan only pitches once instead of twice and I think I like Suppan going twice instead of Weaver going twice. Well hopefully nobody will have to pitch twice. We’ll suprise everyone in three!!!

Sportswriters are getting it wrong. Are the Cardinals fortunate to play in a weak division this year? Absolutely. Are they undeserving of a playoff spot? Absolutely not. They beat all five teams in their division – direct complaints at those teams (namely the pitching-loaded Astros) for not toppling the supposedly extremely weak Cardinals.

Fact is, the Cards finished only 4.5 games behind the Padres in the standings, a team that everyone seems to love, not because of their record, but because they finished strong.

It can hardly be argued that the Cardinals underachieved. How are you expecting a team that starts Jeff Weaver as its #3 starter to compete with a team that rotates Clemens, Pettite and Oswalt? Who is the underachiever there? The Cardinals also went without Pujols, Edmonds, Eckstein and Mulder for significant stretches. Yet they’re to blame for this? They put a rag-tag, patchwork group out there and won the division title.

Realize this: in baseball, making the playoffs is a heck of an achievement – 22 teams didn’t, 8 did. It’s more about being fortunate than being good once the playoffs start.

The Cardinals are not undeserving underachievers. They earned a playoff berth and have just as good of a shot as anyone at the Series.

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